Top cop feels the ticket pain

A former British police chief who waged war on speeding motorists by tripling the number of speed cameras has been nabbed in New Zealand for having an expired registration.

The dailymail.co.uk website said former North Wales chief constable Richard Brunstrom's $200 ticket would raise wry smiles among the thousands of motorists caught by the cameras he authorised.

Once dubbed the "Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban", he wrote on his vulcanspirit blog: "Getting a ticket on a back street in Auckland at half past eleven at night. Ouch!"

Mr Brunstrom was head of road policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers from 2001 to 2009.

Under his regime, the number of speeding fines in England and Wales reached a record 1.4 million in 2007.

He achieved further notoriety for stunts such as hiding a speed camera in a horse box and admitting traffic officers were "hiding behind road signs and walls" with speed guns.

He has been on a round-the-world sailing trip with wife Alison since 2010. "We appealed, ignorance of the law, citing the fact that it was an offence to sell us a car without a valid licence, we're just visitors, we've paid the back tax etc, using their very efficient online system," he wrote.